“Oh well, I guess I’ll just sit on top of my big pile of money and eat bon bons,” I returned casually then, quick as lightning, I morphed to not-casual-at-all, leaned back toward her and clipped, “Now get out of my gallery.”
She pressed her lips together, gave me a squinty-eyed look, transferred the look to Hector then back to me and then she turned and marched out.
It was at that juncture I realized I was breathing heavily.
Hector’s dark gray shirt came into my vision and I looked up into his black eyes.
“What the f**k was that about?” he asked.
“She’s a bitch,” I answered.
“I gathered that, mamita,” he told me and I could hear the amusement in his voice.
And it was at that juncture I realized he was fighting a grin.
And I knew not one single thing was funny about this particular situation.
I got closer to him as it hit me that we had an audience and likely had one for some time.
“This isn’t funny,” I whispered to Hector, ignoring the people gathered around.
His body started to shake with laughter. “You just told her you were gonna sit on your big pile of money and eat bon bons. Sadie, seriously, do you not get that that’s funny?”
I opened my mouth to speak but didn’t get out a single sound when I heard a woman’s voice call, “Sadie?”
I looked to the side and saw the whole gang gathered around, Rock Chicks, Hot Bunch, family and friends, all of them obviously getting what was funny because they were all smiling.
But there were two new people there I’d never seen before except in pictures. A man and a woman, they were both tall, slim, dark-haired and I knew they were Hank, Lee and Ally’s parents, the Nightingales.
“Sadie,” the woman whispered, tears shimmering in her eyes, she walked right to me and pulled me in her arms for a fierce hug. I felt her head turn and she murmured in my ear, “My God, sweetheart, you look exactly like Lizzie.”
Oh my.
This, I knew, was Kitty Sue, my Mom’s best friend.
While Kitty Sue hugged me, I looked at the man at her side. He was smiling down at me.
And that was Malcolm.
Before I could wrap my head around this, she pulled away and when I looked at her I saw she had herself together. She was smiling from ear-to-ear and the tears were gone.
“It’s so good to see you,” she told me and turned to her husband. “Malc, doesn’t she look just like Lizzie?”
He leaned in and kissed my cheek.
Yes.
Kissed my cheek!
I hadn’t seen him since I was three!
“Spittin’ image,” he said when he moved away.
I wondered what I should do in this situation (again, the etiquette books didn’t cover this topic) but I didn’t have to wonder long, Kitty Sue took over.
“I hope you don’t mind, we crashed your party. But I couldn’t wait to see you. Malc and I just got back from Hawaii last night. I wanted to call but we totally crashed. Jetlag. Serious. Crazy. Have you ever been jetlagged?” she asked but didn’t wait for an answer. “Anyway, you and I have so much to talk about. I hear Tom showed you some pictures but I have more…” She blathered on, hand on my upper arm, fingers squeezing affectionately.
I was staring at her, lips parted, stunned silent (not that I could get a word in edgewise) when she was interrupted and someone new called my name.